Old World (The Crew Fan Fiction)
by ALittleBitBeth
Summary: "Josh?" "M-hmm?" "You know how we always joked about who would survive longest in the apocalypse?" "Yeah?" "I think we're about to find out." Face hidden by the shadows, the figure lifted up a gun *** Society has broken down - Civilization is ravaged by hunger and illness - Humanity has reverted to it's wild state - It's a sheer fight for survival.


**Chapter One - Tomorrow**

The sound of heavy breathing echoed along the dark streets. In the distance, the sound of footsteps became muffled in the fog - they were far enough way to not be a problem. Reassured that he was vaguely safe, Aaron allowed himself to dart from his sheltered alleyway and into the open street. He clasped his only weapon - a meager kitchen knife - so hard that the handle began to leave an indentation within his hand.

With a quick scan of the street, he began to allow himself to relax. There was no one around, or at least none that he could see. Anyone could be hidden in the shadows, but Aaron knew that he had to take every chance he could without worrying about tiny details - right now, his top priority was supplies and supplies only.

"Come on," he muttered to himself, twirling the blade between his fingers as he headed towards his destination in a quick sprint. "Come on, come on, come on."

The electricity was always intermittent - that was an inconvenience that Aaron was becoming used to - but tonight was lit up by electric lights all around him. A shop sign buzzed at the end of the road, flickering on and off like a beacon drawing Aaron towards it's tempting supplies. It had already been looted - Aaron could tell that from the moment the broken windows swam into his sight - but there was a slim chance that something could remain.

Careful not to cut himself on the shards of glass that littered the tiled floor, Aaron slid through a revolving door that looked like it had not revolved for quite a long time. Inside the shop, Aaron held his breath - the scent of out-of-date meat and blood was overwhelming.

Fresh produce was out of the question. It would have gone off already if it had not been looted, and as desperate as he was for food, Aaron could not afford to be weakened by food poisoning. Every tinned item was snatched away as well, leaving him to wander aimlessly around the mostly empty shelving units.

Almost as if he was on a casual shopping trip before the world went to ruin, Aaron allowed himself to amble up aisle after aisle. Occasionally, he laid eyes on a jar of deserted pasta sauce or an abandoned packet of dehydrated soup. He did not overlook anything, his eyes so carefully trained for looking for loot within the video games he played religiously in the old world. With everything he found, he took the backpack from his shoulders and shoved whatever supplies he found into it's canvas shield.

As the supplies grew rarer, Aaron found himself biting his lip. Eventually, the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth and he grew aware of the stress piling up on his shoulders - there had to be something else, something more than the complete bottom of the pile. However, despite the headache that was beginning to brew between his temples, Aaron allowed himself to crack a slight smile when he looked upon something he never thought he would taste again - a handful of forgotten tea bags lay on the shop floor.

Kneeling down to carefully stash the brown gold in the front of his backpack, he could not help but jump as an echo of gunshots rattled from beyond the front door. Quickly shooting a look over his shoulder, Aaron grabbed the teabags within his hand and took to his feet as quickly as he could manage. He re-did the zip on his pack, sprinting through the maze of aisles and alley-ways until he found his way to a back entrance.

The door was easily forced open by a hard thump from his shoulder, leading Aaron into the storage depo from the shop before the trouble had started. There was an exit into a back alleyway which Aaron took without a second thought, no longer looking over his shoulder but relying on the fading volume of the gunshots to let him know that the danger was getting further away.

Without even hesitating, he leapt the brick wall that blocked him from the suburbs that surrounded the city he scavenged. In the distance, the distinctive orange glow of firelight disparate into the air above someone's back garden. Allowing himself a single sigh and deep breath, Aaron leapt and climbed over the garden fences until he reached it.

"Put the fire out," he announced, the eyes of his allies all being drawn towards him as his feet landed on the damp grass. "You can see it from the town, and there's somethings going down there tonight."

"But it's cold," protested one of the group, a whining tone tinging his tired voice.

"Josh," argued Aaron, placing his backpack onto the floor and settling down among his group. "We have the sleeping bags, so we'll be warm. We can't be idiotic. I'm not planning on being shot any time soon."

The remark was met with silence - no one had the energy to protest, and they all knew that Aaron's was the smartest idea. Slowly and reluctantly, the four men reached for their own supplies and unrolled sleeping bags that they had taken beforehand. Some of them were there own supplies from before the carnage, but many were stolen - there were no rules now that the old world was gone.

"Put the fire out, Will," commanded Aaron, and the smallest boy from the group clambered to his feet and stamped on the meager flames. The back garden became engulfed in darkness as Will clambered back to his sleeping bag, trying to keep warm under it's thin covers.

"Did you get anything good?" asked the final member of the group, running his hand through his unwashed blonde hair.

"Tea," replied Aaron, allowing himself another slight smile at the thought of the treats he had taken for himself. "No proper food though, Fluke. I mean, unless you count soup."

"Soup is good," commented Will, mumbling through the blue hoodie that he wore simply for the warmth. "We'll get more good stuff tomorrow, right?"

"Yeah," muttered Aaron, rolling onto his side as he tried to get comfortable on the cold, hard ground. "Tomorrow. There's always a tomorrow. Will, you take first watch - wake Fluke up in an hour."

As the others settled down to sleep, Will sat up in his sleeping bag and checked his watch in the dim moonlight. His eyelids were already heavy with exhaustion but he did not allow himself to fall asleep. He kept his attention carefully on the second hand of his watch, watching the time tick by slowly. Eventually, he heard the snores of his three friends around him - he still had forty minutes to wait.

Sighing, Will allowed himself to lay his head on the ground and occupy himself with the sounds of the night. Someone, two cats had a disagreement on a fence and their yowls filled the chilled air. Gunshots echoed in the distance like every night, accompanied by the call of a fox and a chorus of angry shouts. He did not let the sounds faze him, knowing that they were too far away to be a real threat.

When his time was up, Will climbed from the warmth of his covers and gently shook Fluke's shoulder.

"Five more minutes," murmured Fluke, but Will was persistent and continued to shake him.

"Come on, Fluke," replied Will, trying not to yawn. "I'm tired, and it's your watch."

Slowly, Fluke's eyes fluttered open and his face help an unimpressed look. Reluctantly, he sat him into the cold air and flashed a small smile towards Will.

"You get some sleep," he said, almost ordering the younger boy back to his bed. "God, I'm hungry. Do you reckon Aaron got anything good?"

"He never does," answered Will, keeling back down beside his sleeping bag and arranging the meagre covers into the most comfortable position he could manage. "And anyway, we agreed to ration everything, remember?"

"He wouldn't miss a tiny bit," argued Fluke, stretching all the cricks from his body. "If there was bread or anything, I'd take a crumb. There'll be nothing though, or at least nothing I can take without being noticed."

"Whatever," yawned Will, brushing his overgrown hair from his young eyes. "I'm getting some sleep. You do what you want."

However, before Will could clamber into his sleeping bag, a shout echoed from a nearby garden.

"Over here," called a girl. "This is where the fire was earlier, I promise."

Without exchanging a word, Fluke and Will met each other's eye with a flash of fear appearing on both of their faces. Fluke scrambled to his feet, shaking both Aaron and Josh until they were awake and then explaining the situation in a hushed yet panicked whisper. Will preoccupied himself by collecting everything so they would be able to run at a moment's notice, bundling sleeping bags into stolen backpacks.

In barely a minute, both Aaron and Josh were on their feet and with their supplies bundled on their backs. The shouts grew louder, the occasional flash of a torch reflecting off the fence they had providing on to protect them.

"I told you you shouldn't have lit the fire," hissed Aaron, running his hand through his shaved hair. "Come on, we have to go. Now."

They were surrounded.

Aaron tried the same way he had gone earlier in search of food, but before he could even attempt to climb the fence his exit was blocked by a group of both men and women of any age. Josh tried to run in the different direction, finding himself also boxed in. All in all, there were twenty people surrounding the small group of four, and there really was no way out.

Also, they had guns - lots of guns.

"Told you there was a fire here," smiled the girl who seemed to be the youngest of the attacking group - she sounded smug.

"What supplies do you have?" prompted the tallest man, his leather jacket keeping him much warmer than any of the jackets anyone else wore. He held the most powerful weapon, his gun held with both hands as he pointed the barrel towards Aaron. "Go on, tell us. There's no use trying to hide anything."

Aaron looked over his shoulder, trying to get any sort of conformation from any of his own allies about what he should say. They offered him no sort of suggestion or encouragement - Aaron was on his own.

Without a word but with a scowl, he shrugged the backpack from his shoulders and threw it onto the dusty ground in front of his attack. Following his example, his three friends copied him and threw their own supplies onto the power.

"Is that it?" ordered the man, raising an eyebrow at the small pile. When Aaron sullenly nodded, the man pointed towards the girl who had spoken earlier. "Kennie, check the bags."

Without hesitation, the girl sprung forward and crouched in the pile. She pulled open every bag, taking out everything she found from the packets of cheap soup to Aaron's tea bags to Josh's own plushy of his character before the old world had ended. Kennie smiled as she discovered that one of the grown men carried around what was essentially a teddy-bear.

"There's nothing," she announced, putting the meager rations in a small pile that she was able to put into her own bag. "There's a few sleeping bags that might come in useful, but the ones we have back at base are better quality."

"Nothing else?" asked the man, seeming angry at the lack of things Aaron could offer him.

"We're starving, okay?" argued Aaron, taking a defiant step forward. "Take all you want, we haven't got anything that will be any use to us."

"You've got friends," smiled the man, an evil tinge to his grin. "Kennie, open your bag."

Sighing, the girl took her own bag and pulled the zip open - it was filled entirely with tinned food of every kind that Aaron and the others could imagine. Their shock was unable to be hid, and Kennie could not help but smile.

"Oh, where are my manners?" laughed the man, slowly lowering his gun. "The name is Damien, and my group here is going to take this new world by storm. We need comrades, people to help us. Most importantly, we need a medic - any of you got any medical experience?"

The group was silence for a second. Then, with a slight smile on his face, Fluke raised his hand.

"I used to work in a sweet shop," he offered.

Slowly, the smile fell from Damien's face. He aimed the gun back towards the group.

"No funny business," he commanded. "Seriously, none of you have experience? Well then, we'd just have to train you. You - the one in the blue hoodie, what's your name?"

"M...me?" stuttered Will, taking a reluctant step forward. "Will - my name is Will."

"Will what?"

"William Evans."

No one in the group showed any recognition of the name, and Will was not surprised; he was a long way from home.

"You look the youngest," laughed Damien. "And you're absolutely terrified - brilliant. We'll take him. We will trade you all of the food in Kennie's bag to take Will, or whatever his name is. Deal?"

Aaron was silent - the food in the bag was incredibly tempting. Slowly, he turned around to face both Josh and Fluke. Will tried to follow him, but a member of the attacking group planted a hard grasp on his shoulder.

"Come on," he called, worried. "Just say no, Aaron - right? You're not actually considering the offer, are you? Come on, you can't be considering the offer."

"He's right," continued Fluke. "Why aren't we just saying no?"

Aaron was silent for a second. Then, he turned his head to the ground and just shrugged.

"We need the food," he admitted.

A tense silence filled the group, and Aaron looked up just in time to see Will's young face break with the betrayal he felt.

"No," he muttered, heartbroken. "You can't just give me away for food. I thought we were friends, Aaron. I trusted you."

"We need the food, Will," argued Aaron, taking up a defensive stance. "It's the only option we have - think about it. We sell you, we get the food and we survive, whilst you get taken into a group much stronger than ours. We're giving you the best chance of survival."

"I'm not some common hooker," yelled Will, tears forming in his eyes as the person holding him grabbed him tighter and pulled him a few steps backwards. "You can't just sell me to the highest bidder. Have you forgotten everything?"

"I remember everything, Will," retorted Aaron, himself close to breaking. "That's why I'm doing it. I remember every little thing, Evanz - the sheep jokes, the videos, Eurogamer. Those memories are why I'm doing this, because you know that we can't protect you. At least, not any more. You'll stand a better chance with them. The world has gone to shit, Will. I just want you to live to see when it gets out of it."

Will wanted to fight back with an amazing comeback, but he could not. He tried hard not to cry, but a handful of tears ran down his cheeks. He lifted an arm to brush his hair from his eyes, looking towards the floor. He could not face Aaron.

"Is it settled then?" asked Damien, rather cheerfully. "Brilliant. Kennie, leave the bag with the boys. If it's not much of a problem, we'll be on our way."

Someone brought out a coil of coarse rope, tying Will's hands behind his back. Damien re-adjusted his jacket, kicking down the garden fence behind them and flashing Aaron a sarcastic salute.

Roughly, he pushed Will through the gap. Aaron stood in silence, shivering in the cold air. He immediately regretted everything he had said, biting his lip.

"I'm sorry," he called, but it made no difference. They had gained the food they needed for survival, but they had lost one of their closest friends.

He turned to Fluke and Josh, hoping for some kind of comfort but he was met by glares that were cooler than the air around him. In silence, Fluke turned around and marched himself back to his bag lying on the floor. He unpacked his bag, rolled out his sleeping bag and buried himself in the thin folds of material. He turned his back on Aaron.

Aaron turned to Josh, who stood with his arms held awkwardly across his chest. Carefully, he pushed his glasses further up his face.

"Not cool, man," he shrugged, looking towards the floor. "Not cool."

He too left Aaron alone to deal with the repercussions of his actions.


End file.
